Portage Bay- Modern beach house

View of house from the existing dock. Houseboat in the foreground will be rebuilt. 

An old waterfront barn - just feet from Portage Bay- is rebuilt into a modern home. The challenging site restrictions made for a unique massing. While responding to the complicated setbacks, the barn house also shares an access walkway for several future house boats. 

The client was looking for what they described as a "modern beach house". To achieve the beach house feel and pay respect to the memory of the old barn, the home is predominantly clad in weathered cedar planks. We explored several different cladding options to express the juxtaposition of the different masses of the home. The floating mass of the living room was rendered in horizontal and vertical configurations to compare. 

View from dock looking over the roof of an existing houseboat

The long lot also includes an existing residence that looks down on the current barn. For the existing home we had to consider how views will be effected by the new barn house. The rendering below shows the view from the top of the hill.

View of house from upper part of the lot where an existing house sits. 

This project is the first of a larger development that will include 3 new houseboats and the rebuild of an existing one. This will be the last houseboat community allowed in Seattle. The new shoreline rules will not allow any new houseboats unless it is being replaced.